Conventionally, media content is made available in the World Wide Web on servers. Users equipped with communication terminals can access the media content through telecommunications networks having access to the Internet. The media content is made available as digital data representing picture, video, audio and/or text content. Typically, users use their communication terminals as client devices to browse the World Wide Web or Internet, respectively, and access media content through hyperlinks referencing the media content. Hyperlinks include or are associated with a uniform resource locator (URL) of the respective media content. Hyperlinks to media content are often provided on web pages of so called portal servers. A hyperlink displayed on the communication terminal and activated (e.g. clicked) by the user causes the respective media content to be transmitted from the (content) server, where the media content is stored, to the communication terminal. Portal servers and content servers can be implemented on a common computer; typically, they are implemented on separate computers, however. To control access to the media content, the portal servers are often provided with access control modules requesting a user to provide login information such as user name, password and/or a credit card number. The access control modules rely on users to register prior to logging in. For subsequent user authentication during login, the registration process requires an authentication process. Considering the vast number and variety of portal servers and content servers providing media content, an enormous overhead is required for the implementation and maintenance of user authentication, registration, login, and access control mechanisms. A multitude of proprietary (non-standardized and inconsistent) solutions are used for authentication, registration, login and access control mechanisms. Furthermore, each portal and/or content server requires an associated data repository for storing user registrations as well as an interface for accessing and updating the data repository. In addition, the data repositories may need to include information about a user's access rights for media content. Access rights may specify a user's right to access specific classes or categories of media content and/or to access media content from a specific portal server, content server, or content provider.
In patent application US 2004/0184432 described is a method for controlling streaming services between a terminal and a streaming server via a communication network comprising at least one application server and a Call Session Control Function unit. According to US 2004/0184432, a streaming session is requested by the terminal sending a request message, containing information about the media content and the streaming server, e.g. the server address, via the Call Session Control Function unit to the application server. The application server communicates with the streaming server to request a description of the streaming service. Based on the description of the streaming service, the application server sets up a streaming session at the streaming server and informs the terminal accordingly. Subsequently, the terminal initiates the streaming service at the streaming server.